I had five (FIVE!!) Zulus wearing British officers patrol jackets… which seemed a bit excessive so I painted a few up in varied colours – which may or may not be quite so historical… there were a number of volunteer mounted militia types involved - some of which may have had blue, green, or brown-ish tunics with cording… anyway, that’s what I’m saying those odd coloured ones are…

Hopefully these lads will see some action tonight! Shortly thereafter there should be an After Action Report over on Savage Timmy’s Playhouse!

A handy little piece of terrain useable in just about any time period where someone may be defending a camp… I think it was from a Reaper Miniatures pack…? If I recall correctly I bought the pack just for the shovel which I needed to convert a figure for a player in a rippers game that was a grave digger and carried his shovel everywhere…

Now I just need some tents... I was thinking about cratch building a few... but then got looking at these ones available from Renedra...

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Definitely getting started on the hobgoblins next… I had briefly thought of knocking off some Riflemen and/or royal artillery crews for the Spring Thaw Napoleonic Painting Challenge… but I just don’t think I’m going to get to it this week…

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I figured to start with I could play some smaller skirmish games. Most skirmishes, I figured, would mostly have involved Zulus sniping and harassing transport columns or patrols. Thus, I’ve decided to finish up the Zulus I have with firearms first…

This Einstien-ish-looking figure is from Pulp Figures from the Scientific Masterminds pack (he’s actually named “Herr Professor Glickman” in the pack). When I ordered this pack I ended up with TWO of the above figure (and no “Professor Jones”, which I was kind of sad about…). At some point I’ll paint up the other to use as an evil twin or something…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Zulus with Firearms!! They're actually done - they just need some static grass on the bases. I'll probably post them later today...

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Here, finally, is a complete “unit” of British infantry for the Zulu war. Depending on the scale of the action involved it could represent either a company or an entire battalion (or a platoon or a section for that matter... but that's not what I originally planned for...)

One of my projects for the year seems be the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. I’m not entirely sure how I got onto this… I think around the new year I was getting excited about Space:1889 and the whole Victorian/colonial era and I happened to stumble on a couple of really good deals on ebay for some Zulu War British and… well.. some Zulus… (ah, the not-so-practical TIM way of doing things – buy figures first, figure out what I actually need second… doh!). I also picked up a few books - most of the ospreys on the subject, a general history and a great Colonial Campaigns scenario book. Now I’m trying to organize what I have and sort out what else I’ll need and how I might get around to painting it all!?

I think I’m going to go with units of 15 infantry and 8-10 cavalry. WHY? Partly because Ever Victorious Armies (which I’ll probably make use of – though may modify considerably) uses 8-18 figure units. But mostly because I can fit guys in neat little rows of ten in the drawers – with the size of bases they’re currently on. Three complete rows are two units. Yeah… I’m THAT A-R about how I organize the little toys… (That’s really the only reason I bother making full strength sections for my WW2 forces – at least in the armies that had 10-man sections… armies that had largerer sections, however, are always going to be “understrength”!?).

The Colonial Campaigns book organizes the forces into units of 8 figures, but, for me at least, 10 (or less) infantrymen just isn’t enough to represent anything larger than a section… but for some reason 15, in my mind, can be seen a company or a battalion…?! I had thought of doing units of 20 (two very neat rows in my storage boxes)… but I’d need just waaaaaaaaaay too many toys…

Also Old Glory figures, which will probably be making up a fair chunk of the rest of the stuff I buy, come in bags of 30 infantry or 10 cavalry

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

These are all from Black Tree Design. Two of those pictures I had painted previously (though I have since fixed their pith helmets!) but I thought I’d take a picture of the whole unit.

I picked these up off ebay. I’ve read horror stories about ordering from Black Tree Design. Also a friend of mine locally orderd stuff and it took a LONG time for him to get his stuff… (4-6 months, I think…?). But I thought I’d try ordering just a couple packs to fill out complete units of 15 for these and I got a message saying the packs have been shipped – and I only placed theorder yesterday… so we shall see!

Eventually I hope to have eight units of British line infantry. That’s the largest number of units called for in the Colonial Campaigns book. The troubling bit is that there’s a great variety of units that fought in the Zulu war and they all have different facing colours and a number of the scenarios involve troops from only one unit – Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift scenarios both require eight “units” of the 24th (green facing), whereas in iNtombi Drift, eight units of the 80th are required (yellow facing), etc… There were also units with blue and buff facings. I think I’ll probably just do one or two units of each of the different facing colours…

Eventually I’d like to also have two units of Rifles and two units of Highlanders. The Rifles, insofar as I can tell had identical uniforms except they were all Rifle Green and the leather equipment was black.

The Highlanders were in trews – the only real difference was in the cut of the tunic and the cuffs. Black Tree, Redoubt Miniatures, and Foundry all seem to make the Highlanders in trews. Foundry is way too costly (packs of 6 for $24.50…. I’d have to order 5 to make the two units…. so ~$120… no thanks…). Redoubt looks like it’d be $30 plus shipping (whatever that works out to be…!?) per unit, while Black Tree, currently, would be $62 for the two units including shipping… If the currently order works out, I may try ordering from then again.

I guess I have no shortage of stuff to paint in the meantime before I get worrying too much about that. Currently I have three and half units worth or British. The Black Tree order will complete the fourth and I currently have a bag of Old Glory British inbound, which will make six of the line units. I’ll just need two more line units, the two Rifles, and the two Highland units, to finish up the British infantry…

Then there’s the cavalry… and auxiliaries… oi… what have I gotten myself into!?

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team…

I may have to run an “A Team stops the zombie apocalypse” scenario on Savage Saturday one of these days… Maybe they’ll team up with Jack Burton…

Zombie scenarios aside… I was thinking in a Savage Worlds scenario involving these guys they would have to have some sort of edge/special ability whereby they could shoot at people and if they were hit they would be automatically shaken – but could never actually be wounded. Likewise, any one in a grenade or other explosive burst template would be automatically shaken, but never actually wounded… and all their weapons would count as heavy weapons – so they could affect vehicles and any vehicle (car... helicopter... tank... whatever...) they hit would, without rolling for damage, crash, flip over and explode (but only after safely ejecting all passengers… who would automatically be shaken…).

Monday, April 11, 2011

I just about went insane trying to paint all the eyes. I was carpet bombing with f-bombs last night in the hobby bunker…

The figure is from Reaper Miniatures and I think is a really amazing sculpt. There’s even a half devoured victim inside its primary maw.

I couldn’t help thinking of that bit from Hot Fuzz, where after they chase down the shoplifter and Danny and the shoplifter recognize each other and Sgt. Angel wonders why he hadn’t just told him that earlier and Danny says “I’m not made of eyes!?” – they guys IS made of eyes!

Zulus… probably… despite being inspired by painting these fantasy characters and finishing Two Towers and playing Age of Conan… I’ve nipped that little potential distraction in the bud by sitting down this morning and finishing a book I’d started on the Zulu War. Well, that and the fact that I have a bunch more Zulu War minis inbound filling in all the gaps in what I’ve acquired so far that would have precluded me from playing much other than a few skirmishes (thanks Mike!). Everything is back on track… well… until the hobgoblins show up…

Friday, April 8, 2011

This is "Sinse", and is described as Mike as being “an Important NPC. Supposed to be kind of alien looking. Hair is chestnut and skin is only a bit lighter. Eyes are a flat, baleful acid green. She was a resplendently equipped elven noble warrior... 200 years ago, and welp, there just haven't been any elven quartermasters around. Cloak is originally a light green colour with strange designs around the edges but is terminally stained from 150 years of rough wear. Armour is a glossy blackish-brown, trousers were originally green but are also dull and stained, boots were a yellowed ivory but, again, that was a long time ago. Metal trim is all brass. Anything leather is normal leather colour and in better shape because it's been replaced many times. The blade of the long sword is swirled purple and red. The long knife's blade is a dull green…”

Well, individual eye colour is a bit beyond my skillz… but here’s what I came up with:

For the life of me I just couldn’t get a decent picture of her front…!?

Here’s the back…. And there’s some static grass stuck to it… ah well… I’m not totally excited about how the swords turned out… I might have another go at those…

Thursday, April 7, 2011

…The ranger bends down to investigate a pile of dung. The mage says, “I guess we won’t be needing that crossbow after all”. The Ranger says, “[insert your own punchline here]”.

Two more of Mike’s D&D Characters (or NPCs as the case may be…).

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

These two, and the remaining two which I shall likely finish up tonight, are from Dark Sword Miniatures. They are very nice figures. The detail on them is very fine. This may be all very nice and realistically proportioned and stuff... but, man, is it a pain in the butt to paint.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A couple more Bad Ass D&D characters… A couple Lord of the Rings figures have crowded their way onto the workbench along with another regiment of Zulus… we shall see.

Actually painting these fantasy figures has been kind of fun… and combined with the fact that I’m pretty stoked about playing Age of Conan again… and I just finished reading Two Towers to my son (and starting Return of the King)… and just starting the Savage Sword of Conan collection that Rick got me for my birthday… I wouldn’t be too surprised if a few fantasy figures of my own found their way onto the workbench… Maybe finish up a few Hordes of the Things armies that are close to completion…

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Another couple of D&D characters for my friend Mike in Ottawa. I finished up the first one, a ranger, a while back. When he asked me to do this I said “sure, I’ll be able to knock them off in a week or two…”. It’s been a month or two… only finished four of about a dozen…

Sorry Mike… I’ll get on the rest of them before I paint ANY other figures!!

Monday, April 4, 2011

More Zulus! I finally finished a whole unit of them! I’ve been back and forth about what size to make these units. It’s going to be 10, 15, or 20 – mostly because I can neatly fit them in rows of 10 in the storage drawers… sad, perhaps, but that’s the way I am. I had toyed with the idea of having the unmarried units (such as these below) in units of 20 and the married warriors in units of 15, but I think I’ve more or less settled on units of 15 (but I guess that could change depending on the scenario – benefits of singly based figures!). Ten seems too few to represent formation of company or battalion size. Twenty would just be WAAAAAY too many toys to paint.

More rambling on the Zulu War shortly…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

These are unmarried warriors from Wargames Foundry. The spears and shields are separate, which makes for a pain in the butt to put together, but also makes form some lively, animated figures!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Um… Mike’s minis (no…really – I finished one up last night except for the basing, another will be finished along with it tonight and I have another four well on their way)… and then some British – just to mix some things up I’ll probably go back and forth between British and Zulus.